I have already written about the great articles you can find on Sandow Plus about Eugen Sandow, the “father of modern bodybuilding”. In this post, I have written a brief introduction to some of the other strongmen featured on the Sandow Plus site.
Thomas Inch
According to Wikipedia, Thomas Inch was born in 1881 in Scarborough, England and died in 1963. At various times, he held the titles of Britain’s Strongest Youth and Britain’s Strongest Man.
He was famous for the Thomas Inch dumbbell, known as the 172. This was a dumbbell that weighed 172lbs and 9 ounces and had a very thick handle, 2”3/8 in diameter. During his life, he claimed that no other man was able to even lift it from the floor, let alone put it overhead.
As with another colourful character, Herman Goerner, there is quite a bit on the internet about Thomas Inch. Here are some of the best snippets:
- Modern strongman Corey St. Clair recounts the time when he lifted the Thomas Inch dumbbell.
- For an amazing collection of articles about Thomas Inch, including details of those strongmen who have tried to lift the dumbbell over the years, you can do no worse than to check out this remarkable compilation.
- Thomas Inch himself writes on The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban.
- This is a good summary of all those who have tried and failed to lift the Thomas Inch dumbbell.
- In the modern era, only Mark Henry has lifted a modern replica of the Thomas Inch dumbbell overhead. His feat was reported here.
Prof. K.V. Iyer
Prof. K.V. Iyer was a striking figure. He was born in India in 1900 and died in 1980. Relatively short in stature, he was 5’7.5” and weighed just 160lbs. He attracted a great deal of attention for his remarkable physique in the 1930’s and was a successful gym owner and correspondence course publisher.
An excellent short article taken from Iron Man Magazine by David Chapman can be found here.
George F Jowett
George F Jowett was yet another Yorkshire strongman, who was born in 1891 and died in 1969.
A biography of Jowett can be found here. A brief article by Jowett called “Footsteps of Yesterday” is reproduced here on Natural Strength and another short article called “Mining the Human Body” is reproduced here on Bob Whelan.
Siegmund Klein
Siegmund Klein was born in 1902 in Koenigsberg, Germany and died in 1987. Many physical culture commentators see him as bridging the gap between the oldtime strongmen of the early part of the twentieth century and the modern bodybuilding culture of post-1950.
A short article about Klein can be found here. An article on The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban written by Klein himself about the Bent Press can be found here and one on Brooks Kubik’s site can be found here.
Earle Liederman
Earle E Liederman was born in Brooklyn in 1886 and died in 1970. He ran a successful correspondence course in the 1920’s.
Here are a few other resources about Liederman:
- an article called “Endurance” by Liederman has been reproduced on Natural Strength;
- an article by Liederman about other oldtime strongmen has been published on The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban;
- the original Liederman course is still available over the internet here!
- a short article about a typical Liederman routine can be see here; and
- David Chapman has written a brief biography that has been published on Bob Whelan.
So what have I learned so far?
In reading about these great strongmen, I have started to form a few opinions of my own. They may be right or wrong but it will be interesting to see if I still hold them once I’ve worked through all the material on the Sandow Plus site! Anyway, after reading through the works of these strongmen, I think that:
- Yorkshire seems to have had something in the water that creates strongmen. If we can bottle it, we could make a fortune;
- I still like the idea of the bent press although I have not yet summoned the necessary spine to try it;
- the fascinating history and heritage of the vintage strongmen, like Inch, live on in modern times through our attempts to match or even surpass their feats;
- speaking of which, Mark Henry is a monster.
So that was Inch to Liederman. Next time, I’ll write about McFadden to Nordquest!
For a list of my key articles by category, please check out this index.
Tags: Earle Liederman · Eugen Sandow · George F Jowett · old school weightlifting · Prof K V Iyer · Siegmund Klein · strongman · Thomas Inch1 Comment
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